//------------------------------// // Virtually Apologetic // Story: Virtual Mischief, Augmented Darkness // by chaoticevl //------------------------------// Virtually Apologetic Thomas could see nothing. It wasn’t the darkness of being in a pitch black room. It was a complete lack of any sort of stimulus. He was pretty sure he wasn’t dead as he was still thinking pretty clearly but at the same time he couldn’t even hear his own heart beat. Slowly, through pinpricks of light and snippets of sound, the world began to reform in front of him again. As the light intensified he saw his hands reforming in front of him and beyond that the ponies he was supposed to be helping. Soon there was enough sound that he could actually make out what the girls were saying. “Twilight why did you shoot him? He said his was going to help us.” Pinkie Pie questioned. “Well you did call him an evil spirit, Pinkie. Why would I allow something that caused this mess to, help us, when he could betray us in the end.” Stated Twilight in a matter of fact matter voice. “I’m sorry” Thomas said. It seemed none of the girls heard him though and just kept arguing over what they needed to do. “I’M Sorry!” he yelled this time. All six ponies turned to face him. Five of them were shocked to see him. Pinkie on the other hand looked happy. Her mane poofed back into it’s normal shape and her eyes sparkled in delight. “You’re not dead!” exclaimed Pinkie as she came running at Thomas. In a quick leap Pinkie tried to tackle hug Thomas but passed right through him. Looking a bit shocked Thomas quickly spun around. Reaching out he put his hands around Pinkie’s barrel and lifted her to her hooves. “Pinkie? Are you alright?” he asked. “Yepperoonie!” Pinkie happily announced as she pronked back towards the other girls. Said girls still looked quite stunned. Looking back at the rest of the girls Thomas spoke up. “I’m sorry. I’m not an evil spirit, and what I did to Rainbow Dash was an accident.” After hearing this Rainbow was the first to snap out of the stunned trance and flew right into Thomas’s face. “You knocked my wing out of its socket, and allowed Nightmare Moon to win! How was that an accident!?” Rainbow yelled forcing Thomas to step back a bit. “I, um, can explain the first part.” Thomas meekly replied hoping Rainbow would calm down enough to say anything. Rainbow was suddenly covered in a purple aura as Twilight pulled her away and set her on the ground. The glow left Rainbow but didn’t leave Twilight’s horn as she tried to stare holes in Thomas. “You have one chance to tell us what you’ve done and how we can fix this. If I don’t like what I hear I’m just going to start blasting you till you don’t come back” Twilight growled out. “Okay. As Pinkie said I was following you for quite some time mostly just watching events unfold. I didn’t believe I could do much more then watch till an accident at Pinkie’s party. I moved something. It was an accident but I moved something I shouldn’t have been able to even touch. When I realized I could influence this world I tried to have a bit of fun.” The girls did not look one bit happy as Thomas began his explanation. He continued explaining his part in their adventure. “So you were the one making bushes rattle in the forest?” Pinkie giggled as she asked. “Yeah that was me I hadn’t expected to moved them so much without trying to. When you all reached the serpent, I noticed I couldn’t do anything so I went to the other side of the river to see if there were any other traps. While waiting for you on the other side I began to stretch, and didn’t notice as Rainbow quickly flew through my hand. It happened so quickly I didn’t have much time to even react before she hit the ground.” Thomas finished his story looking downcast, waiting for Twilight to not believe him and start blasting him. The blast never came, so he looked at the girls who all seemed to be thinking the situation over. “See girls, I told you he was willing to help us fix this problem. Right Mr. Spirit?” Stated Pinkie with a large smile on her face. “Yeah I’ll help. I’m really not sure how I’m going to do that but I’ll do my best. Also my name is Thomas. Pinkie sat down next to Thomas as the rest of the girls began to whisper amongst each other trying to decide what to do. Thomas reached down and absentmindedly scratched behind Pinkie’s ear. “Oh that feels nice can you do the other one as well?” “Um sure.” Thomas said as he switched ears. Suddenly a simple melody began to play from Thomas’s pants pocket. On instinct he reached into his pants and pulled out his pocket pc. He quickly brought it to the front of his face to see what message he received. “Wait, why can I see this in here?” “See what silly?” Asked Pinkie. “This,” Thomas showed Pinkie the pocket pc “it shouldn’t show up here since It should be with my physical body.” Looking back at the screen Thomas saw an email and attachment from Disco Riders Media. It was another letter from Mr. Scions. Dear Mr. Crewe I hope this email reaches you at a good time Mr. Crewe. Being that you’re such an esteemed customer of ours we thought of you when we decided to start beta testing our new application. Please install the attached file and please let us know what you think about it at your earliest convenience. Sincerely Dean Scions While very confused at this turn of events Thomas did what the email asked and tapped the attachment and installed the application. The app icon was of a chimeric creature with parts from quite a few animals. It seemed to have a bird’s talon, a paw of a large cat, a long serpentine body, and legs that Thomas couldn’t quite make out. The words AnyMapWiki were across the bottom. Laughing as the ridiculous name Thomas tapped the icon and was greeted by a text box asking use current location? Thomas quickly tapped yes and was instantly floored when a map labeled Equestria Ponyville area came on the screen. “P-Pinkie? Is this where we are right now?” Thomas asked as he showed Pinkie the screen. “Ooooh, that’s exactly where we are!” Pinkie tried to touch the device with her hoof and it passed right through. Touching where it looked like Pinkie wanted to tap caused the map to zoom in on Golden Oaks Library. Thomas looked on dumbfounded as he saw markers on the map for himself, Pinkie, and the other girls across the room. “How the, ever loving monstrosities, did this app get a map of equestria and where we currently are!?” As soon as the question was uttered a rapidly rotating cube appeared on the screen. Each face of the cube showed one of three figures. The same chimeric being that was the app icon itself, a slightly more feminine version of said being, and the last was an odd purple pony with a yellow beanie on her head. The cube finally slowed down and stopped on the pony who was making raspberry noises with her mouth and hoof. The pony quickly stopped what she was doing and looked towards the screen and exclaimed in a voice that sounded familiar. “Hi I’m Screwball your randomly chosen helper. What can I help you find? Thomas was once again struck dumb as all he could utter was “Ummm, what?” “The Elements of Harmony!” Pinkie shouted at screwball. “I’m not sure that’s going to work Pinkie.” Thomas said as Screwball on the screen pulled out a magnifying glass and made the motion of looking around. “Elements of Harmony found!” Chirped Screwball as she faded away showing a full map of Equestria with five markers. Pinkie jumped up excitedly “Hey girls, we found them!” Twilight turns around eyes Pinkie and Thomas in a critical manner. “What do you mean you’ve found the them?” “It seems I’ve gained a map that shows their location.” Thomas points his device in Twilight’s direction. Twilight Rushed over and looked at the device that Thomas was pointing at her and noticed markers on the map showing her new friends cutie marks over multiple locations across the map. “How Accurate is this map?” Twilight asked Thomas. “I’m not completely sure as I didn’t know I could do this until a few minutes ago. It did have markers for all of us in Golden Oaks Library in the exact positions we were in the room.” Thomas shows twilight what he meant by zooming back in on the library. “See this marker is me, that one is Pinkie and your’s has moved to this side of the room. So I would say it looks pretty accurate.” Twilight tried to grab the device in her magic but couldn’t seem to get ahold of any part of it. She looked quite annoyed at Thomas for preventing her from taking the device. “Sorry Twilight I have no control over that. If you can get a paper map of Equestria I can point out on it what my map has.” Thomas says apologetic manner. Twilight goes back to the table in the middle of the room and begins to rummage through all the maps she has. Finally pulling out a large map that seems to cover all of Equestria and it’s surrounding know lands. “Here this should work.” Twilight states as she finishes smoothing out the map. “Hey Pinkie?” Thomas looks over at Pinkie. “Do you happen to have those game pieces you used before you went into the Everfree forest?” “Sure I do!” Pinkie quickly reaches into her mane and pulls out a random assortment of game pieces. She selects five pony shaped figures that match up with her and her friends tribal types, and places them on the map. “Those will do. Thanks Pinkie.” Thomas smiles at Pinkie as he grabs a random pony piece. Looking between his pocket pc and the map he grins. “Applejacks cutie mark is over here in a place called Tall Tale.” Placing the earth pony piece on the map, he grabs up another one. “Rainbow Dash’s is in Griffonstone? There are griffons in this world?” Thomas asks as he places the pegasus piece down on the map. Twilight speaking up says “Yes, there are griffons, minotaurs, dragons, and quite a few other races on Equis.” “Interesting.” Thomas looks intrigued at the prospects of seeing these other races on this adventure. “Let's see Rarity’s mark showed up in Manehatten.” Placing the unicorn shaped piece upon the city that most looked like something from his world. “Next is Fluttershy’s, and it seems to have appeared in… The Bad Lands?” At hearing her name and where the element landed Fluttershy eeped and dived underneath a nearby chair. “Why is it called the bad lands?” Rarity Spoke up this time, “Nothing grows there, Nothing lives there, and it’s nothing but wasteland. The place is just so uncouth, and no respectable pony would want to go there of their own free will.” “That seems like a valid reason to name it that.” Thomas shakes his head at the thought of having to cross a barren wasteland like that. “Last but not least, Pinkies mark. It looks like it’s in a place called Los Pegasus.” “Woooweee, I’ve always wanted to see these places!” Pinkie chirped happily as she bounces in place. Rainbow Dash and Applejack look at each other then towards Thomas. “Uh, sugarcube…” Applejack starts. “Where’s Twilight’s mark on the map? Huh, are you holding out on us?” Rainbow asks in an accusing manner. “Rainbow Dash, don’t you remember the book says the sixth element will make itself know when the other five are brought together.” Twilight says looking at Rainbow and Applejack. “So..” Applejack Spoke up again. “We believe we know where to go, but do we have a plan on how to get to these places. Will we be splitting up tackling each location on our own or what?” “For a pony as awesome as I am going to Griffonstone should be no problem for me!” Boasts Rainbow dash. Fluttershy at the prospect of having to goto the Bad lands on her own causes her to squeak “The Bad Lands are scary!” over and over to herself from under her chair. Twilight looks over at Rainbow Dash and sighs. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea. It might be faster, but there’s no way to know what we’ll find at each location.” Thomas coughs into his fist and speaks up. “I know I really shouldn’t have any say in this, but I feel like I should point out that you might not have made it through the Everfree if you had gone alone. You all seem to work much better together then you do apart.” Pinkie quickly grabs every one else but Thomas and pulls them into a hug. “Yes, we should adventure together. It’s always more fun together. We could be an Adventurer Party!” Giggling at her own joke she lets the rest go. “While it’s not going to be fun or a party.” Twilight looks pointedly at Pinkie as she says this. “Her and Thomas are right we really should go together. There’s safety in numbers, and while Nightmare Moon most likely thinks we’re defeated and disheartened she could change her mind and try to capture us anyway.” They all nodded their heads in agreement, and look towards the map. “So where to first?” Rarity asked. “I think we should go to Tall Tale first. It’s the closest by train and we won’t have to pass through Canterlot to get there.” Twilight states as she points out the nearest route. “Are the trains still running sugarcube?” Applejack asks. “Even if they’re not Applejack we’ll just borrow one if we have to. I know I’d rather not have to do such a thing but if that’s the only way we’re going to get to Tall Tale then so be it.” Twilight states defiantly. “Twilight, how long will it take you to get to Tall Tale from here?” Thomas asked “If everything goes right, then it should take about a day to reach Tall Tale.” Thomas looked down as his pocket pc to see if he could get a sense of scale of how long it will take to get around Equestria. As Thomas looks around the map his pocket pc begins to fade from his view. “Um, girls somethings wrong. I can’t see my map any more.” The girls turned towards Thomas and Pinkie begins to speak, but nothing comes out of her mouth as the world around him began to speed up and pull away. A sudden sound of a rubber band snapping causes Thomas to fall back. Landing on his ass, he realized he wasn’t in Equestria anymore. Taking off his glasses he look towards his pc and saw an odd sight. On his screen he saw the words PLEASE INSERT DISC 2 NOW.